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'Amateur hour': Alex Rodriguez tries to explain his steroid use. Again.

Yankee says cousin provided 'substance'

By Phil Rogers | Tribune reporter

February 18, 2009

Alex Rodriguez's take on his three years using the steroid Primobolan?

"It was really amateur hour," Rodriguez said Tuesday at the New York Yankees' training facility in Tampa.

Rodriguez, taking questions from an overflow crowd of reporters on his first day in camp, added some details to the interview he gave with ESPN's Peter Gammons a week ago, after Sports Illustrated reported he had tested positive for steroids in 2003. He said an unidentified cousin provided him with the performance-enhancing drug, which that cousin injected into him about two times a month over three seasons.

"My cousin started talking to me about something that was available for purchase in the streets of the [Dominican Republic]," Rodriguez said. "He said it was called 'boli' or 'bole.' We decided it would be a good idea, and my cousin started administering it to me. … We consulted no one. … It was pretty evident we didn't know what we were doing."

Rodriguez, as stylish off the field as on, met with reporters as if he were dressed for a casual dinner. He wore khaki slacks and a dark dress shirt. He had a red string bracelet on his left wrist, as often worn by Kabbalah followers.

Rodriguez wasn't under oath in this news conference, as he may be one day during a formal interview with federal investigators. He may have been using his cousin—whom he declined to name—to cover for someone in baseball or associated with his longtime agent, Scott Boras.

While someone who had just signed a $252 million contract should have been a lot smarter than Rodriguez says he was, his latest story could be the truth.

Baseball players haven't been known as the most savvy group, and it's plausible Rodriguez wouldn't even want Boras to know he was trying something to give him an extra lift.

Rodriguez said he did not know the substance his cousin was injecting was steroids. He was asked why, then, was he so secretive about his use.

"That's a good question," he said. "I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs. I knew it could potentially be something that was wrong. ... You don't want to share everything you do with the public. That was something I decided not to share with anyone."

Rodriguez said only that he gained some "energy" from the use of Primobolan but hinted it could have come from something as innocent as a placebo affect.

"I'm not sure what the benefits were," he said. "When you take any substance, especially in baseball, which is half physical, half mental—you could take this bottle of water and if you say I'll be a better baseball player [for drinking it], you probably will be. I felt more energy, but it's hard to say."

Rodriguez indicated he did not gain strength while his cousin was injecting him.

"When I was a junior in high school, I bench-pressed 310 pounds," he said. "Today I probably bench-press 240 or 250. I did it because I played football, quarterback, and the big challenge was that if you could [bench press 300 pounds] you would get a letter jacket with white sleeves. I was poor. I thought, 'What a great way to get a free jacket.' "

Rodriguez admitted one regret during the news conference: Going straight from high school to pro baseball. He said he would want his son to attend college if he ever had a son following in his footsteps because he was too immature to deal with everything that has come his way.

"I thought I knew everything," he said. "I clearly didn't."

Rodriguez said he will be part of an anti-steroid education campaign. He said he plans to join forces with Major League Baseball and the Taylor Hooton Foundation in that regard.

He did not announce plans to make a financial commitment.

Rodriguez came off as contrite during the questioning. He neatly sidestepped the questions he did not want to answer and only seemed ruffled when he attempted to address a group of his Yankees teammates in attendance.

Being implicated in the steroids scandal comes on the heels of an ugly divorce, the Yankees' third-place finish (and first missed playoff appearance since 1993) and a well-publicized relationship with Madonna. As he ended the news conference, he sounded like a man who has been undergoing therapy, a subject that wasn't addressed.

"These last 15 months have been very tough," he said. "I've been through a divorce, been through the tabloids, you name it. I miss playing baseball and I miss simply being a baseball player."

progers@tribune.com